


Simon/Simoff/Simon Again

by broadwayturtle



Category: Escape from Furnace - Alexander Gordon Smith
Genre: Alternate Ending, Canon Universe, Gen, Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-17
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-09 19:02:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4360715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/broadwayturtle/pseuds/broadwayturtle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I refuse to apologize for the title. >:P</p><p>Basically a short thing where Simon isn't actually dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Simon/Simoff/Simon Again

In a sense, he did die, at least for a while.

He knew that was why they left him.

He felt the disconnect, heard a slight ‘click’ sound that signalled his separation from Alex and the real world.

He followed the light, followed the herd of enraptured boys his age, all of them–Simon included–staring upwards at the source.

He was _beautiful_.

His lopsided smile exuded warmth, a literal, tangible warmth that made Simon want to break out in a grin and _sing_. He suspected the others felt the same, because many of them actually did.

 _God_ , he was happy. So light and so free and so happy.

And then he heard it.

A sound so distant he almost missed it over the singing, so quiet that he shouldn’t have, by any right, been able to hear it.

_**A sob.** _

_“Oh.”  
_

_“Oh god,”_ it said.  


It was so light, so phantasmagorical, so quiet _and_ _yet_ –and yet, it still went through him like a shockwave, stopping him in his tracks. He felt the pain in his bones, felt it tearing at his heart, felt an overwhelming need to find that strangely familiar voice and try to soothe it, and when he tried to take a step forward he fell.

_“He’s gone! He’s gone! They’re all…they’re all gone–It hurts…”  
_

More sobs and incoherent fragments of words.

Despite being dead, Simon started hyperventilating. He clutched at his chest, eyes wide in pain and disbelief. The voice was coming from behind him, from the other side.

The wrong side.

It was dark save for a pinprick of light that was slowly fading the more he looked at it.

He looked frantically back and forth between the crowd and the pinprick of light. At this point, the others had noticed he’d stopped, even the angelic guide. His boyish smile was gone as he frowned thoughtfully at Simon, then gave him a small, heartbreakingly sad smile. He nodded, as though he knew Simon was waiting for his permission.

_“Go. Save yourself. And tell him thanks for the burger.”_

His voice was so soothing that it almost convinced Simon to stay, but he heard that whispered wail again and immediately remembered its pull. He had to do something. He had to help. So he nodded, turned back, and leaped through the tiny silver dot in the abyss.

  


He awoke on the hard ground, gasping for breath. It took him a while for his memories to come floating back to him, but once they did, he bolted upright and started to sprint towards the mansion. He didn’t notice all the dead bodies until he’d searched everywhere and realized he was the only one there.

They’d left him.

He’d died for like two seconds and they’d left him. He felt slightly indignant that they didn’t even look for him, but he knew that the moment his heart had stopped beating, his connection with Alex, and thus any knowledge of his whereabouts, had been severed. Still, they could have, y’know, looked for his body or something. He sighed as he sat down next to a gross lump of meat that used to be a berserker, and before that, a kid his age. At the very least, he needed to find a way to escape.

Months later, after building a boat out of material he’d rather not mention, he managed to find his way back to his friends. He knocked on Alex’s door, scraggly and downright filthy. It took a while for Alex to recognize him but when he did, his hand shot up to his mouth as his eyes widened and then narrowed as he started to cry. Simon just grinned and stared right back at him. 

“What’s the matter, buddy? You look like you seen a ghost.”  


Alex hugged him as tightly as he could--filthy and gross as he was--laughing harshly through his sobs.

 

_“Welcome home, Simon.”_  



End file.
